Opposites Attract
by LasagnaAndRookie
Summary: Draco Malfoy and Luna Lovegood have NOTHING in common, right? He's a rich, pro-Pureblood Slytherin, and she's a dreamy, open-minded Ravenclaw. Are they just too different to be more than enimies, or will two worlds be able to collide?
1. Chapter 1

As Luna walked into the Great Hall one Saturday morning, nothing seemed unusual to her. She was just walking towards the Ravenclaw table, when she heard someone call her from across the Hall. They weren't calling her name, but they were calling a name Luna had grown to respond to.  
>"Hey, Loony!" called Draco Malfoy from the Slytherin table. "I heard you're doing the commentary for the Quidditch match later! Just to remind you, it's Quidditch, not Fictional-Creature Hour on the Wizarding Wireless Network, okay?" Laughter broke out all over the Hall. Luna rolled her eyes, and just sat down, ignoring all the students' laughter.<br>"Just ignore them, Luna." said Collin Creevey, as he passed the Ravenclaws on his way to the Gryffindor table. "They're just a pack of idiots, Malfoy and his little gang."  
>"Thanks, Collin." said Luna. Collin shrugged his shoulders, and headed off. Luna looked at the food on the table, but nothing appealed to her. Then, she spotted the pudding. It was pretty unusual for the House-Elves to make pudding for breakfast, but Luna wasn't complaining. She helped herself to some, without even bothering with the proper breakfast food first.<br>"Hey, Luna," said Harry, as he walked past.  
>"Oh, hi, Harry." said Luna.<br>"Good luck with the commentary later." Harry said.  
>"Thanks, Harry." replied Luna.<br>"Well, see you later, then." said Harry, as he continued on his way. When Luna had finished her breakfast or pudding or whatever it was, she headed down towards the Quidditch pitch. Professor McGonagall was there already, waiting for her in the commentator's stand.  
>"Ah, there you are, Miss Lovegood," said McGonagall.<br>"Good morning, Professor." replied Luna.  
>"Now, I'd like to remind you, please do not stray too far off topic during your commentary," said McGonagall. Draco Malfoy's words rang painfully through Luna's mind.<br>"Yes, Professor." said Luna dispiritedly.  
>"And cheer up, nobody likes a gloomy commentator!" said McGonagall. Luna smiled a little, and sat down, ready for the match. Students soon began to file into the stadium, and before long, it was full, and the teams were coming out.<br>"And here come the teams!" said Luna into her microphone, over the cheering of the students. "For Gryffindor, we've got Johnson, Potter, the Weasley twins, Wood, Spinnet and Bell, and for Slytherin, we've got Flint, Montague, Warrington, Derrick, Bole, Higgs and Malfoy." she said, trying not to put any emotion whatsoever into the last word. "This year, due to the Tri-Wizard Tournament taking place, there is no Quidditch Cup. However, the teachers organised one game, the old rivals, Gryffindor and Slytherin, mostly so that Hogwarts' youngest students can experience a match in their first year here." McGonagall looked up at Luna quite disbelievingly, and nodded in encouragement. "Um, Gryffindor in possesion of the Quaffle, Johnson passes it to ..., Fred or George Weasley hitting a Bludger there, narrowly missing Slytherin Seeker, Draco Malfoy. Johnson's got the Quaffle again, racing towards the goals. Slytherin Beater, Montague, hits a Bludger there, I expect it was aimed at Harry Potter, but it missed him by quite a bit. Johnson heading for the hoops, and... Gryffindor scores! That's the score, ten-zero to Gryffindor.

An hour later...

"Nice commentary, Luna," said Harry, after the match.  
>"Thank you, Harry." said Luna. Harry headed off to the changing rooms. Luna was sitting alone in the stands.<br>"Oi, Loony." said an all-too-familiar voice. "Nice commentary. Though, lacking your usual, how do I put this...? Loony-ness, let's say.." Crabbe, Goyle, Zabini and Parkinson, who were standing behind Malfoy, began to laugh.  
>"Well, I did my best, what more can I do?" said Luna politely, not showing how hurt she was.<br>"Very wise answer," sniggered Malfoy. "I can see you're used to having to use them." Malfoy's little gang laughed harder.  
>"C'mon, Draco, don't waste your time with weirdos like Loony," said Pansy Parkinson.<br>"Yeah, good point." said Draco, as he turned, and left with the other Slytherins. Luna watched them go, tears prickling in her eyes. Although she never let it show, it hurt when people made fun of her, usually for being different. And nobody was better at it than Draco Malfoy.


	2. Chapter 2

By the time Luna had decided she would attend the Yule Ball, basically everyone already had a date. But Luna wasn't worried.

Later that day, she was asked by Colin Creevey, a Gryffindor boy in her year. "I'd love to go with you," Luna told him when he asked her.

No matter how hard the nargles tried, they couldn't dim her high spirits. But Draco Malfoy certainly could.

He saw her in Hogsmeade, looking at dresses with Ginny Weasley. While Ginny was checking out purses, Malfoy approached her.

"Well, what do we have here? Loony Lovegood buying a dress? You're a third year, so the only way you could go to the Ball would be if you had a date. But who would ask you?"

Luna ducked her head, in hopes he would go away. He didn't.

"Who _did_ ask you, Lovegood?"

"Colin Creevey," Luna answered, flinging through the racks of dresses. Malfoy laughed, a cruel sound.

"Creevey? The little mousy Gryffindor? Potter's stalker? That's a low Lovegood, even for you." Malfoy laughed again, harsher than before.

Luna grabbed a dress, bolted into the dressing room and locked the door. Leaning against it, she began to cry. Luna reached up and wiped tears from her face, making sure none got on the dress.

Carefully she stepped into the gown and zipped up the back. Pulling her long blonde hair into a high ponytail, Luna walked out of the dressing room.

Ginny gasped. It was a pale peach strapless floor-length gown that hugged Luna in all the right places. Neither Luna nor Ginny noticed Malfoy on the other side of the store, unable to take his eyes off Luna.  
>-<p>

At dinner, Luna sat somewhat isolated, as usual, but flicked glances down the table at her fellow Ravenclaws. She half-listened to Cho Chang gush about her boyfriend, Cedric Diggory, to her best friend, Marietta Edgecomb.

"Who are you going with Luna?"

Luna looked up from the Quibbler. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Marietta rolled her eyes as Cho asked her question again. "I said, who are you going to the Yule Ball with?"

Luna sighed. "Colin Creevey," she answered, pulling the Quibbler up past her face so the girls wouldn't bother her again.

Cho was puzzled. "Who's Colin Creevey?" she asked in an undertone to Marietta, who shrugged in response.

Behind the Quibbler, Luna was pondering. Why did people care so much about this ball? What was the point? Why was Malfoy so mean? Why-

"Hey, stranger," said a voice. Slightly annoyed, Luna lowered the Quibbler once more, but her face softened when she saw who it was.

"Oh, hi Colin," Luna replied, turning a page. Colin slipped into the seat next to her, and was on the receiving end of one of Marietta's glare.

She folded her arms. "This is the Ravenclaw table; no Gryffindors allowed!"

Colin blinked, unfazed by Marietta's comment. Marietta shook her head in pity. "Carry on then," she said, saving her breath.

Luna looked over at Colin. "What brings you here?"

Colin smiled. "I just wanted to say hello. Hello. I'll see you later, Luna," Colin said, rising as he spoke. He walked back to his table, tripping over Malfoy's extended foot.

Marietta looked over at Luna. "He's a keeper," she said sarcastically.

Luna blushed and lifted the Quibbler up again. "Must be the nargles," she said, to no one in particular.


	3. Chapter 3

Draco was sitting alone in the Slytherin Common Room. It was past midnight, but he had no intentions of sleeping.  
>"Draco, what's up?" asked Pansy, who was just walking into the Common Room from the girls' dorm. "Why aren't you in bed?"<br>"I could ask you the same question." replied Draco, rubbing sleep from his eyes. He was now realising that he was pretty tired after all.  
>"I just got up to go to the bathroom." replied Pansy. "You?"<br>"Can't sleep." said Draco.  
>"I didn't see you in Hogsmeade today." said Pansy.<br>"Yeah, I followed Loony around a bit. She was looking at dresses with Weasel's sister." said Draco.  
>"I can't imagine that weirdo in a dress." said Pansy, smirking. "I, on the other hand, have a nice dress that my aunt bought me a couple of months ago for my birthday."<br>"Er, cool." said Draco. He wasn't even going to pretend to know the first thing about dresses. He only knew how amazing Lovegood had looked in that one in the shop...  
>"So," said Pansy, sitting down next to Draco. "Have you asked anyone to the ball yet?"<br>"No, I haven't." replied Draco. He didn't even want to go to the damn ball, never mind ask anyone to go with him.  
>"I haven't got a date either." said Pansy, smiling what she thought to be sweetly. Eventually, Draco decided resistance was pretty futile.<br>"Pansy, would you like to go to the Yule Ball with me?" asked Draco, trying to sound enthusiastic. He thought he'd failed miserably, but Pansy seemed pretty happy anyhow.  
>"Draco, I'd love to go to the ball with you!" she said, flinging her arms around him, pulling him into a hug. Draco just sat there and let Pansy hug him. Finally, she pulled away. "I'll see you tomorrow, Draco. Goodnight!" Pansy then half-walked, half-ran back to her dorm.<br>"I thought she needed to use the bathroom?" Draco said quietly to himself, even though there was nobody to hear him.

*  
>Draco didn't feel like going to Hogsmeade the next day. It was Sunday, and it was anything but a nice day. The temperature had dropped considerably, and it had only just stopped raining. He decided he may as well go, though, even if it was only to escape Pansy. Who knows, he might even see Luna again.<br>He really had to stop thinking like that...  
>Draco stuck his arms into his coat, pulled on his hat and his gloves, and threw his green and silver Slytherin scarf around his neck. As he walked out of the school grounds, he was greeted by the sight of what seemed to be hundreds of kids, walking around the small village, having a good time. Draco was not one of them.<br>Despite his promise to himself to raise his standards a step or ten, he found himself looking out for Luna. After maybe half an hour of fruitless wandering and watching, he spotted a dirty blonde ponytail dissapearing around a corner. As though acting all by themselves, his feet took him in her direction. She was with the Weasley girl again, this time going into a shoe shop. Draco followed them at a distance, careful not to be seen.  
>"These are nice, Luna. They'd go with your dress." said the ginger girl.<br>"Yeah, though I'd like shoes without much of a heel. I like flat shoes." said Luna. "Those ones would look nice with your dress, Ginny."  
>"Oh, yeah, they're really nice." said Weasel's sister, picking up a pair of pale pink shoes. Luna wandered off around the shop, pausing to look at different pairs of shoes that took her fancy. Finally, she chose a pair. They were duck-egg blue, with not much of a heel, but they weren't completely flat. Draco didn't really think blue would have gone with that amazing peach-coloured dress she had on yesterday, but, then again, this was Loony Lovegood.<br>"They're pretty, Luna." said the Weasley girl.  
>"Thank you." replied Luna, going to the counter to pay for them. They cost less than a Galleon, not much, really. Trust her and a Weasley, especially the Weasley, to be shopping in cheap shops.<br>"What dress did you end up buying?" asked Ginny, when Luna returned.  
>"Oh, I didn't buy any dress." said Luna. "I wrote to my dad, and he's going to send me a package with my favourite dress. It used to be my mum's, but she never liked it much. She let me use it for playing dress-up when I was little, but I think it's quite pretty now."<br>"Oh, that's nice." said Luna's friend, though it was pretty obvious she almost didn't want to know what sort of dress Luna would end up wearing to the ball.

*  
>Next Saturday, everyone was sitting at their House Tables, eating breakfast as normal. Draco's Slytherin buddies were nowehere to be seen, so he caught himself watching Lovegood eat her bowl of pudding, which the House Elves seemed to have cooked again. Then, out of nowhere, a whole flock of owls arrived to deliver the post to students. After four years of this happening almost every morning, Draco had become quite used to it, and tended to pay little attention unless he was expecting post himself.<br>He wouuld have taken no notice at all, only that a large, squidgy-looking package landed in front of Luna, whom he was still watching. Weasel's sister was just walking behind the Ravenclaw table, and she stopped and spoke to Luna and waited to see what was in the package.  
>It turned out to be Luna's Yule Ball dress.<br>The only way Draco could think of to describe the colour of the skirt was the colour of a pearl, and it had a delicate little blue design over it, almost like tiny little stems of a flower running from the hem up to the waist. The top bit of the dress was a nice blue colour, the exact same colour of the shoes she had bought in that shop. Surprisingly, it was... pretty. Really pretty, in fact.  
>"Wow, that's nice, Luna!" said Weasley.<br>"Thanks." replied Luna, smiling. Draco got up, and walked towards her, without really thinking beforehand.  
>"What do you want, Malfoy?" asked Weasel's sister.<br>"Nothing," replied Draco, a little too quickly. "I was just thinking that my eyes must be mistaken, and I came to make sure. I mean, I'd never have thought that Loony would wear something almost normal."  
>"Malfoy, get lost, will you?" asked Weasley angrily.<br>"It's a free country, I can stand here if I like." said Draco.  
>"Malfoy, please go away." said Luna, as tears prickled her eyes. She pretended to drop her fork, and was then able to duck under the table to retreive it, giving her time to dry her eyes while Draco couldn't see her.<br>"Hey, Ginny, I need your help with something. It's urgent." said a small girl with curly brown hair, who had just appeared. Draco supposed she must be in Luna and Weasley's year.  
>"Fine," said Weasley. "Luna, if you can get into the right mood, give him a good punch on the nose for me."<br>With that, she hurried off with the other girl, and Luna came into view again. Draco glanced at the dress quickly.  
>"Creevey'll be happy, anyway. Ahaha." he said, trying hard not let any hint of how he was really feeling creep into his voice.<br>Draco turned, and headed back to the Slytherin table. Luna stared after him. Had she imagined it, or had there been a hint of jealousy in his voice? Surely not, why would Malfoy be jealous of Collin? But why did he always seem to be watching her? Why did Luna even care?  
>She gave her head a little shake to clear her mind, and went back to her pudding. <p>


End file.
